A “virtual machine” is a virtualized copy of a computer system, with virtual hardware (including disk controller, network card, etc.). Frequently, running within the virtual machine is a full operating system. These virtual machines run on a physical host server known as a hypervisor. The hypervisor abstracts the physical hardware of the host server so that the virtual machine sees virtual hardware regardless of what the underlying hardware actually is. The storage volumes that appear within the virtual machine are virtualized storage volumes provided by the hypervisor. The storage volumes visible from within the virtual machine can come from multiple sources.
Virtual machines may be centrally managed in an enterprise and used by different departments. Because of this, the purpose of the virtual machine (and the software used on it) may change over time. Managing application usage across the enterprise, such as uninstalling a large application and installing another application can be time consuming and very resource intensive.